A little pre season tutorial

Our little burg gets the look over in the national media as Steve Mertl examines the last year of tourism in the city and the hopes for a better year to come.

In a piece that has appeared in major newspaper across the country and on their respective websites, Mertl takes a look at our town and how the upcoming tourist season looks.

There’s a bit of history, a mini tour of the city and a guide to some of the things to see and do around town for those that wander our way.

It’s an interesting little thumbnail sketch for those that are looking to hit the road this spring and summer and make the Northern Pacific coast their destination.

No dimming Prince Rupert's tourism potential
By STEVE MERTL
Canadian Press
April 18, 2007

Just over a year since B.C. Ferries' Queen of the North ran aground and sank, the ripples that the accident sent through the province's northern tourist industry may finally be starting to subside.

The loss of the ship upset the planned itineraries of many "rubber-tire" tourists who had hoped to catch the ferry either in Prince Rupert and head south or take it north from Port Hardy, on the northern tip Vancouver Island, as part of a circle tour.

"We were hearing about hotel cancellations as far east as Saskatchewan," says Bruce Wishart, Tourism Prince Rupert's executive director.

"So it really tells you how critical a link that Inside Passage is for all the tourism moving not only in British Columbia but beyond."

Ninty-nine passengers and crew were rescued after the Queen of the North struck an island near Prince Rupert on March 22, 2006. Two people are missing and are presumed to have gone down with the ferry.

The incident was a blow to the century-old port city of about 14,500 struggling to recover from the decline of its fishing and forest industries.

But the ship's replacement, named Northern Adventure, has now entered service - the first of three new vessels dedicated to routes along the central and northern B.C. coast.

Sailing every second day, the two-year-old ship, purchased in Greece, is more luxurious and comfortable than the four-decade-old Queen of the North and its aging sister ship, Queen of Prince Rupert. It features more cabins and four luxury staterooms with panoramic views forward.

"We have a lot of work left to do to get back to where we were prior to the sinking, of course - but man, this is a great vessel," Wishart said of the refitted Northern Adventure, which had its first Port Hardy-to-Prince Rupert run on March 31.

Wishart and B.C. Ferries hope the new ships will revive the 15-hour Inside Passage run as a mini-cruise.

"That's of course the market that we lost last season," says Wishart. "That's an extremely popular trip."

Peak summer fares for the daytime trip range up to $116 for adults, not including taxes, fuel surcharges or vehicle costs. A cabin will cost $70-$200 extra.

The Northern Adventure will itself be replaced on the Inside Passage run in two years by a larger, brand-new vessel, the Northern Expedition, being built in Germany. The Northern Adventure then will handle the run between Prince Rupert and the nearby Queen Charlotte Islands.

"The luxury that we have with the Northern Expedition is that we're able to build it from scratch and design it for that specific route," says Dan Wong, B.C. Ferries' communications vice-president.

Prince Rupert, about 750 kilometres north of Vancouver, has always been a city with high hopes.

Outside its art deco city hall - formerly the federal building - there's a statue of city father Charles Melville Hays.

As president of the Grand Trunk Railway, Hays envisioned Prince Rupert as a northern port rivalling Vancouver once his Grand Trunk Pacific line was completed.

Hays went to Europe in 1912 to drum up investment capital and returned home on the maiden voyage of a new liner, the Titanic.

The railway tycoon was among the more than 1,500 people who went down with the ship, taking his dreams with him.

The line - now CN Rail's northern main line and western terminus of Via Rail's Skeena passenger train - was completed but the city never lived up to his vision.

New container port and commodity-handling facilities under construction have revived the promise, and Prince Rupert is once again attracting newcomers.

Its small-town ambience is flavoured with cosmopolitan touches such as a Vancouver-style tapas restaurant named Rain, appropriate on this wettest part of the "Wet Coast."

Visitors are likely to check out Cow Bay, a waterfront stroll of homey cafes and shops adjacent to the cruise ship dock, so named because a dairy herd brought here in 1906 had to swim ashore.
The city attracts about 500,000 visitors a year, including upwards of 90,000 from the four cruise lines that make stops here as part of their Inside Passage Alaskan cruises between May and September.

"We really stand with one foot in British Columbia and one foot in Alaska as the southern terminus of the Alaska Marine Highway," Wishart points out, referring to the Alaska ferry terminal in Prince Rupert.

While it's burnishing its hospitality services, Prince Rupert is trying to avoid becoming a jaded tourist town. Authenticity is the buzzword.

"It reminds people of Alaska 15 or 20 years ago," says Wishart.

The city's beautiful wilderness setting is the real magnet for visitors who show up here.
Prince Rupert sits on Kaien Island, near the mouth of the Skeena River, and its airport is a short ferry ride away on Digby Island.

Some days, bald eagles seem as common as pigeons in southern cities.

Tourists who come in on Air Canada Jazz or Hawk Air scheduled flights get an eagle's view of the North Coast's eye-popping vistas, when it isn't raining.

But arriving B.C. Ferries and cruise-ship passengers see its splendour up close.

Cruise-ship stopovers average about six hours, says Shaun Stevenson, marketing director for the Prince Rupert Port Authority, and have spawned a variety of new services geared to them.
"For us it's been extremely important because our rubber-tire traffic, like off-the-street-stuff, seemed to decline over the last few years," says Ryan Leighton, manager of Seashore Tours.

Prince Rupert has become a hub for wilderness and adventure-oriented fun, from fishing and whale-watching to exploration of the area's rich aboriginal history, showcased at the Museum of Northern British Columbia.

Seashore, operated by the Tsimshian First Nation, offers archeological tours of nearby Pike Island - Laxspa'aws (meaning island of sand) in the Tsimshian language - with petroglyphs attesting to 10,000 years of habitation.

Leighton says its bear-watching tour of the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary is also popular. It runs between May and early August, when grizzlies can be seen from boats as they prowl the shoreline for fish.

Tours average about four hours, manageable for time-pressed cruise-ship visitors.

For some, it's a taste that brings them back for longer visits and even to stay.

"We've seen a few people return off the cruise ships now because they really like the area and the experience," says Leighton. "There's been a few people return and buy property."
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If you go . . .

Prince Rupert is served by twice-daily Air Canada Jazz and Hawk Air flights from Vancouver; B.C. Ferries' Northern Adventure, running between the city and Port Hardy, Vancouver Island, every two days; Via Rail's Skeena from Jasper, Alta., connecting to Edmonton; cruise lines Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Regent.

Dining: Rain tapas restaurant, Smiles Seafood Cafe, Cow Bay Cafe, La Cucina brick oven pizzeria.
To do: Museum of Northern British Columbia, including First Nations carving shed; whale-and grizzly bear-watching excursions, fishing, wilderness hiking. Raid the North extreme adventure race, June 23-30.

On the web:

www.bcferries.bc.ca
www.tourismprincerupert.com
www.museumofnorthernbc.com
www.cruisetoprincerupert.com